Migrants have say in homeland

But local participation in Mexico's presidential election may be low

For the first time in their history, Mexicans who live in the United States could have a say this year in their country's political future.

But with the deadline to register to vote in the 2006 presidential election looming, the chance that many will participate grows slim.

Around the country and in Central Florida, where about 70,000 Mexicans live, there's little sign of a rush to the post office to meet the Jan. 15 cutoff to mail registrations.

Election watchers say a lack of information, complicated voter-registration procedures and little outreach from Mexican institutions are proving to be deterrents.

The Mexican Congress passed a law this summer authorizing the vote from abroad -- an acknowledgment of the country's dependency on its large emigrant population.

Those who register will be able to vote for president as well as the 628 members of Congress of the Mexican Union, as three political parties vie for dominance in the country's July 2 elections.

Of the more than 20 million Mexicans who live in the United States, more than 4 million qualify to register for the vote, Mexican electoral officials said.

"Everybody is aware in Mexico that those who left the country are part of the national life and that their support is very important for Mexico," said Jorge Pinto, a Pace University professor and former Mexican consul in New York City. "I predict Mexican politicians will pay even more attention to Mexican migrants."

Despite the community's importance to Mexico's economy -- Mexicans in the United States transferred an estimated $20 million last year to relatives back home -- this first time around, many of those potential voters may not even know about their newly gained right.

Complicating things further, the voter-identification cards required to register are only issued in Mexico. The voter application has to be submitted through certified mail and with proof of address, a difficult requirement for those who are undocumented immigrants or migrant workers.

"I had not heard anything," said Maria Reina Lopez, a plant-nursery worker who stopped by an information table set up by volunteers from the Farmworkers Association of Florida in Apopka. "I don't know if I have the voter's ID," she said. "It's been 16 or 17 years since I left Mexico, but I'd like to vote."

Community leaders and activists say the Instituto Federal Electoral, Mexico's nonpartisan electoral agency, delivered registration materials so they could help distribute them only a week or two before the registration deadline, without any significant campaign to educate voters.

"This has been a total failure," said Joel Marquez, general manager of !Que Buena! 1060 AM, a Mexican radio station that reaches about 30,000 listeners around metro Orlando.

Marquez said the station received thousands of registration forms last week, and he had disc jockeys promote their availability on the air. Not one listener had shown up to request them by Friday afternoon.

"Most of our listeners have no idea what is going on," Marquez said. "I don't even know what's the procedure to vote."

Officials at the Consulate Office of Mexico in Orlando said they have helped by distributing more than 12,000 registration forms with instructions. The consulate, however, does not bear responsibility for the electoral institute's outreach, said David Penaflor, coordinator of the Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior, a civic group that works with the consulate.

"I think some promotion has been done, but the people have been slow to respond, and this is an important moment for all of us. Mexicans in the United States have been asking for this opportunity for a long time," Mexican deputy consul Gilberto Velarde said.

Pilar Alvarez, a spokeswoman with the Mexico City-based Instituto Federal Electoral, said the organization rushed to put together the absentee-ballot election system in 90 days, because the Mexican Congress' decision came late in the electoral season. Institute officials could not be reached to find out how many expatriates have registered so far.

"No country in the world has to deal with the complexity that Mexico does in taking absentee ballots," Alvarez said, "because we have a high number of migrants in a neighboring nation, which also happens to be the most powerful country in the world."

Despite the obstacles, some pressed to get the message out.

Volunteers for the farmworkers association spent most of Friday at an Apopka shopping center asking customers if they were Mexican and if they wanted to vote. They planned to go to nurseries and work fields this week. Most potential voters were stopped in their tracks when they found out they needed voter-identification cards, which are different from the ID cards issued by their consulates.